Here Lies a Dead Rabbit
by yokainomiko
Summary: Oh my god is that a rabbit? Is what Botan thought as she was driving. Kyaaahh! was the next thing heard by a certain fire yokai


Here Lies a Dead Rabbit  
By: Fumi

Botan sat down, buckled her seatbelt and adjusted her rear-view mirror. She had just gotten her driving license the week before and the ferry woman was eager to show off her skills on the road.

_Ha ha!_ Botan thought to herself. _Only one week on the road and most people wouldn't even know it!_ She paused to stop at a stop sign. _Ooh! I know my signs well! Anyway it probably helps that Koenma-sama bought me a car as a gift for getting my license… My pretty turbo-engine Volvo that's a dark shiny blue. It still even has its new car smell. I can't wait to show Yukina!_

Which brings us to where Botan was planning on driving to. The ride went smoothly. She drove out of Tokyo without a hitch and as she got closer to the woods our driver's mind started to drift to aspects of her visit.

_Let's see… I think I'll stay at the temple for dinner. Goodness knows I'm tired of takeout!_ Botan paused to look out her side window. _Oh, I'm in the woods now. It shouldn't be too much farther until I have to park and walk the rest of the way. Driving's nice, it's kind of different from my oar…_

_Oh look! It's a baby deer! Kawaii-desu! It's so little! I wonder where it's kasan is…_ The ferry girl smiled and turned her head towards the center of the road just in time to see a small round figure right in the middle of her view.

_Oh my god! Is that a rabbit?_ Botan stared in shock for a split second. _I have to stop!_ In her panic to avoid the small creature she pressed the accelerator by accident.

"K-KYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Botan cried before turning the steering wheel as hard as she could ramming into a nearby tree. All of her windows shattered as her bumper moved upwards and the lid of her car popped up. She continued to scream until the airbags deployed. "Itai…"

Our ferry girl then struggled to get out of the car, but she only succeeded in popping the airbag which resulted in her head hitting the dashboard. "Itaiii… Note to self…don't do this again!" She said aloud as she rubbed her head.

_Wait, what exactly is 'this'? Let's see…I was fawning over foals when… Oh my god! I killed an innocent creature!_

"Wahhh!"

"Shut up onna."

"Kyaaahhh!" Botan cried, that is until she saw who the speaker was. "Oh Hiei… it's just you…"

Hiei ignored the not so kind comment and merely said: "Do you plan on coming out of that contraption anytime soon?"

Botan looked nervous before hanging her head. "I… I can't…"

"Are you that stupid?"

"Iie!" she protested. "It's just that… It's just that, IcrashedtoavoidarabbitandIcan'tbeartolooktofindoutifIdid… I feel better now that that's off my chest…"

Hiei blinked and said, "Hn," before he disappeared.

"H-Hiei! Where did you go?"

"Baka onna shut up. I'm just behind you on the road," Hiei snapped.

"Oh… is it… is it dead?" Botan tentatively asked.

"Yes," was the blunt reply.

"Waaahhh!"

Hiei covered his ears. _I don't know how much more of this baka onna I can take…_ He turned to face the totaled car and his eyes softened ever so slightly. Only people who knew our half-koorime very well would even notice the difference.

"Hn," the fire yokai said. "You didn't kill it." Hiei then crossed his arms just to show that he was _**not**_ trying to cheer Botan up.

While she missed the underlying meaning of his words, Botan ceased her cries. "What? D-demo… you said that it was dead!"

"It is, but it died a good hour ago and your infernal scream was 8 minutes ago."

"Oh… he he…" was the nervous response. "You heard that?" a blush was apparent on her cheeks and Botan leaned on her steering wheel to cover it up.

"Hn. Baka onna, why did you think I came?"

"Er… Yukina sent you?" the blush grew and instead she tried to cover her cheeks with her hands.

Hiei ignored her and walked next to her car. If he looked interested in the fact that Botan was covering her face he didn't show it and he instead asked: "Are you going to ever leave that heap of junk?"

"Well… I should bury the poor rabbit… but I can't bear to look at it!" Botan exclaimed moving her hands to her lap.

"What kind of a ferry girl can't look at death?"

"T-this is different! I can't do animals! It's so much sadder… especially considering how many of their deaths are caused by the stupidity of people like me…" Botan looked at her lap and started sniffling.

"Baka onna, if you can't look at it, don't. I'll get rid of the rabbit." Hiei stated quickly after he saw that a couple of tears had fallen onto her lap.

"R-really? Thank you!" the blue-haired maiden was radiant. She opened her car door and hugged, yes hugged Hiei. "You'll give it a tombstone and everything?"

Hiei stiffened, "Why would I do that? I only said I'd get rid of it."

"Fair enough," Botan smiled at Hiei.

"Let go of me"

Botan abruptly let go of Hiei and blushed. "I-I guess I'll get going now. I'm late for meeting Yukina," she then turned and ran into the woods hopefully in the direction of Yukina.

_Hn. Baka onna, now where am I going to find a shovel?_ Hiei looked at the dead rabbit in distaste. _What's the big deal anyway? Why is she so upset about a rabbit and what's so great about a baby deer that the onna squeals?_ Now to the ordinary viewer this was jealousy, but obviously _**Hiei**_ couldn't be jealous of something.

* * *

The next week Botan went to visit Yukina again. She un-summoned her oar for lack of a better word and knocked on Yukina's door.

"Ah! Botan-san! What a surprise! What are you doing here?" Yukina asked as she opened the door and let her visitor in.

"Oh, well I'm here to survey the area where I had the car accident so I can properly fill out my accident form…" Botan looked at her feet embarrassed. "So I thought I'd say hi first…"

"Well I'm glad to see you!" the koorime exclaimed. "But speaking of the accident… How did Koenma take it?"

The ferry woman sighed. "Not well, he threw a fit, lectured me, and canceled the vacation I had planned for next month…"

"Oh, I'm sorry Botan-san. You were looking so forward to that break…"

Botan smiled. "It's alright!" she looked around Yukina. "I know this is off subject… but I was wondering if you'd seen Hiei. I wanted to thank him for helping me out last week."

"He's probably at the grave. He's been there everyday in the past week…" Yukina said thoughtfully.

"Eh? Grave?"

"Hai, the rabbit grave. I could take you…"

"Pretty please?"

So Yukina opened her door again and held the door open for Botan. After they both left the house (Or shrine) Yukina guided Botan to a small clearing and there, on the other side of the clearing was indeed Hiei.

The ferry woman grinned and ran over to Hiei. "Wha'cha looking at Hiei?" she asked leaning over his shoulder.

"Hn," was all he said, but he pointed at a piece of wood partially buried in the dirt in front of him.

The piece of wood had the words "Here lies a rabbit. It was not killed by a baka onna," carved into it.

Botan blushed as she read the sign and with her right hand she grasped the left hand that wasn't pointing at the tombstone of sorts.

Hiei blushed very lightly.

"Here lies a dead rabbit," Botan began pretending that she hadn't seen the blush.

Yukina stood next to Botan and bowed. "Please continue Botan-san. I'm sure usagi-san appreciates the respect."

"Ok, here lies a dead rabbit. I didn't know it personally while it was alive. However I'm sure it was a very nice rabbit. I _**did**_ meet the rabbit after it died in the middle of a road for reasons that I do not care to know…"

* * *

This is supposed to be an entry for Spiritt's fanfiction contest that had the requirement of involving a rabbit, Hiei, Botan and less than 2,000 words. I wrote this story today actually n.n I started it last night and then found out it was due today. It did however get me to write my first YYH story and if I had any typos or grammatical errors please tell me and be specific.

8/31/05


End file.
